[Boothroyd]

Worldwide influenza deaths number around 700,000 annually.

A pandemic would be capable of infecting roughly 50% of the world's population when it has finally run its course. So if the mortality rate is 2%, that represents a rough total of 70M deaths worldwide. ( 3.75B infected x 2%). More than the total deaths suffered by military and civilians in WWII. 1% of the world's population dead.

Pandemics are a big deal. Remains to be seen if this becomes one. But just to put the cautionary measures into perspective. "Spanish" flu was the last one, 100 years ago.

I know the researchers at the Mayo Clinic in MN refer to this scenario as "when", not "if", and have been studying pandemic threats constantly for years, for obvious reasons.